Mermaids, Wizards and New Moon

Title got ya wonderin'?

That is the theme of the last few cakes I have done.

This was a wizards hat that I did for a Wizards of Waverly Place theme party. This cake is 100% edible. The bottom is a 8 inch chocolate cake, filled and iced in vanilla butter cream. The hat is also chocolate cake, iced in vanilla butter cream. I baked the hat portion of the cake in a 4 cup & 2 cup pyrex measuring cups and then stacked and iced. All the yellow accents you see are fondant. The clients were very excited. The mom had originally asked me to just do a 2-d version. Me, being me, and loving a good challenge, I was like OH NO, we can make this bad boy stand up. So they gave me the creative leniency to go for it. I always hate myself during the process for saying I will do something like that. But in the end when I have the finished product and it turns out great, and the client is happy..then I am happy I took the challenge on.

This cake was an 8 inch red velvet cake, filled and iced in vanilla butter cream. The mother to be was decorating the nursery in the sock monkey theme, so I was asked to make a sock monkey cake. This was my own design I came up with. If you ever google sock monkey cake, you will see some very scary cakes! All of the accents I hand made out of fondant; the monkey, blocks, dots and banner.

This was an 8 inch strawberry cake; filled and iced with vanilla butter cream. The wine bottle is made from fondant. The grapes and vine are all butter cream.

This Emma's 6th birhtday cake. She wanted a mermaid cake. It is a 8 inch red velvet and 6 inch white cake; as requested by the birthday girl; filled and iced in vanilla buttercream. The stars are made from chocolate using a mold.  All of the other accents, anemones, clam shell with pearl, turtle, fish, sea horses, mermaid, lobster, were all handmade by either the hubby or I. 

This was a 8 inch chocolate and 6 inch vanilla cake; filled and iced with vanilla butter cream. All of the accents are made out of fondant. This was designed to make the plates and napkins for the party.

Here is mine and the hubby's version of the New Moon book. It is all edible. It is a vanilla cake, the "pages" are vanilla butter cream scored to look like pages. Then it was covered in black Satin Ice fondant. With fondant accents on the cover of the book.

This is just a few of the things that have been keeping me so busy over the past couple of months.

Call me crazy

After a 4 1/2 hour wait, a couple of new friends made ( Hi Charlotte!) I finally got to meet PW!!!!

She was at Border's Bookstore in Dallas last night promoting her new cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks. The hubby and I arrived about 5:15 p.m. I got my pink wristband (how fitting...if you know me...you know I love me some pink.) Each wristband color represented 100 people. I was the 4th color. That's right, that means there were 300 plus people ahead of me. But oh the number of people behind me....I believe there were at least three more colors behind me. They called my color to line up around 6:30 p.m. I finally made it to the front and got my booked signed about 10 minutes after 11:00 p.m.

It really didn't seem like 4 1/2 hours. All the ladies in line around me made it go by pretty fast. I stood in line next to a sweet older lady whose name was also Ree. Her name was not short for anything though. Apparently it was an old family name. I am sure you will see her on PW's site. PW took some pics of her when she made it to the front. Hubby stood at the front and called me on my cell phone with updates of when they made announcements and as each wristband color passed through. So we kind of felt like we were in the know.

I had plenty of time to look through the cookbook. It is great, of course! I love that it is so personal. She has included all kinds of photos of friends, family and the ranch life. The recipes have step by step photos; which is just awesome in my book. I love to know what something is supposed to look like so that I know I am doing it right. I can't wait to try out some of the recipes.

I met Charlotte while standing in line. She was standing in line getting a book signed for her mom who lives in Ohio. Charlotte herself, had never been to PW's website until that day. She went to look and see what this woman she was about to go stand in line for was all about. I think by the end of the wait though, she may be a fan of PW now also. She was even talking about getting herself a copy of the book. Gotta love it!

All in all, it was a great experience. Note to self: eat before you go and take a bottle of water!

Can't wait for Black Heels to Tractor Wheels to come out; I will go do it again!

He's a big boy now

My little man went off to preschool on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure he was going to go. He had been wishy washy about it for several days.

At times he was really excited and then there were times he would say he didn't want to go.

Tuesday morning came and he was SO excited. He got to take his teddy bear with him for a teddy bear picnic.

Here he is so big and handsome getting ready to go.

He walked right in, found his basket and put his stuff in it.

He took off into the classroom with no time to hug his momma.

His teacher caught him and had him go wash his hands. (A requirement for all students when they enter the class)

I was able to snag him for a quick hug, but he didn't really have time.

Then he was off to find his spot with his new friends.

When we picked him up that afternoon he was wore slap out. Finally someone wore that boy out!

 He is your typical male. He didn't want to share a whole lot of details about his day at first. I think he needed time to decompress.

 As the day went on he began to share details of his first day. He had a great time. He loved music class; which was no surprise. He told us they took their bears with them and sang "We're going on a bear hunt"

We are so blessed to have Mrs. H as his teacher. Sissy had her last year as well. She was a Kindergarten teacher for 25 years at a local school. She retired two years ago and is now teaching preK. Funny thing is she was my cousin's 2nd grade teacher back in the day.

WFMW - Kraft Food and Family Magazine (Giveaway)

UPDATE: Congratulations to Buffie. She won the 2 yr subscription to Kraft Food and Family Magazine! Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

I love love love this magazine. Kraft foods and family magazine.

Most recipe magazines have a bunch of what we call "froo, froo" food recipes in them. They have recipes that you have to have special ingredients that you can't get at your local grocery store.  Or they have recipes that require A LOT of prep time.

But not Kraft Food and Family Magazine. Oh no! This is a quarterly magazine put out by Kraft foods. They have yummy, easy everyday recipes. Recipes with ingredients that you probably have right now in your pantry. Recipes that your kids will more than likely eat. Their recipes are easy to follow. It's very bright and colorful. They offer great tips, tricks and ideas about cooking throughout. There are usually some coupons tucked in the middle of the magazine as well. I have been subscribing to this magazine for several years now. I always find something that I like in every edition. They also have a free digital version you can sign up for.

You can go here to sign up and start receiving your own copy of Kraft Food and Family Magazine.

Or you can leave me a comment and I am going to giveaway one (1) 2 - year subscription to one lucky blessed reader. Along with that subscription Kraft is including a free Best-Loved Recipes Cookbook. Please leave me an email address to contact you to get the necessary information to get the magazine to you. This giveaway will close at 8:00 p.m. CT on Thursday. Winner will be notified shortly thereafter.


Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Kraft foods or any of their affiliates. I am not getting paid to talk about, offer this giveaway or in any other way advertise for Kraft. I just love this magazine and want to bless someone else. Any questions, contact me.

Now go join We are THAT family for some great organizing tips.

Menu Plan Monday 8/31 - 9/4

With homeschooling and all that entails we are trying to be very purposeful with eating meals at home. If I don't have a plan then we don't do very well.

Here's what our Menu looks like for the week.

Monday: Velveeta Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice

Tuesday: Chili (made by handsome hubby and oh so yummy!!!)

Wednesday: Roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. I make this in the crockpot. I throw it all in in the morning and it's ready at dinner time. We usually do something in the crockpot on Wednesday's because of church.

Thursday: Smothered Chicken with brown rice with green beans and spinach

Friday: Velveeta Tex Mex beef and potatoes I chose this so that I can use the other 1/2 lb of my velveeta that I will be using in my recipe on Monday.

Three out of five of my recipes this week come from a free magazine that I get. I will be telling you about it on Wednesday in my What Works for Me post. So come back and see me on Wednesday and learn we I get all these yummy recipes from!

Until then head over to the Organizing Junkie and check out what everyone else is eating this week. I know I found a few new recipes that you will probably be seeing on my menu in the upcoming weeks!

Have a blessed week!

Smothered Chicken with brown rice

Ingredients:
4 slices Bacon, chopped
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
4 large carrots (1 lb.), thinly sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
3 cups hot cooked brown rice

Cook and stir bacon in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 5 min. or until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; drain on paper towels. Discard drippings from skillet.
ADD chicken to skillet; cook 5 to 6 min. on each side or until golden brown on both sides and done (165ºF). Transfer chicken to plate; cover to keep warm. Add vegetables and 1/2 cup broth to skillet; cover and simmer 10 min. or until vegetables are tender.
STIR in broth and Neufchatel; cook, uncovered, 2 min. or until Neufchatel is melted and sauce is thickened, stirring frequently. Return chicken to skillet; cook 2 min. or until heated through. Spoon rice onto serving plate; top with chicken, sauce and bacon.

Homeschool - Week One

We had a great first week of  homeschooling. The A Beka curriculum that we chose teaches them to write in cursive. So far this week we have learned the letter I and the letter U. She has done really well with those two letters, and I know she will getter better and better as we continue to practice. That's not to say there weren't a few tears shed. There may have even been a few I can't do it and but momma's spoken. Momma gave her the "we're not quitters" pep talk and dried the tears. She rallied and kept at it and wound up doing pretty good on those cursive letters.

We have been doubling up on some lessons because of our upcoming vacation in September. Which is why we covered two letters in one week. This will allow us to be on vacation and not have to worry about getting behind. We will be taking our flashcards and such to keep progressing though.

Here are some pictures from this past week.

 

This is our official first day of kindergarten photo. She even put shoes on, which I told her she didn't have to. 

Here we are working at the kitchen table. This is where we started the week out. 

Here she is at her desk we wound up and purchased Tuesday night. She made the letter I out of pretzels. 

We decided to buy a small desk because our kitchen table has benches and not chairs. After her and I sat there for two hours with no back support and her little legs hanging down it became difficult to be comfortable and still for both of us. We picked up this little desk at Big Lots for $25. Can't beat that!

Overall we had a great first week and looking forward to next week! 

Flowers, Ducks and a Wedding dress

First I started the weekend off with a cupcake bouquet for a friends mom. I was really excited because I got to use my new airbrush machine my hubby just bought me for my birthday.

This was a dozen white cupcakes with vanilla butter cream icing. I arranged them in this bowl to look like a bouquet of flowers.

I added tissue paper under the cupcakes to give it that bouquet look. I also tied some ribbon around the bowl to fancy it up a little.

Next up was a baby shower cake for a friend. The shower theme was ducky. I searched all over looking for an idea and couldn't really find anything that just jumped out at me. Wilton has the 3-D duck pan. All the pictures of the cakes made with that pan I didn't really care for.

I hate doing the star tip on a cake to make an image or cover a cake. It give my hand major cramps. So I steer away from that if at all possible. So instead of using the duck pan to make a cake out of, I used half of the pan and made a chocolate mold out it.

I used pre-colored yellow chocolate melts. I melted them down, poured them in half the pan and stuck in refrigerator to harden. Then I just popped it out and painted on the eye and bill with more pre-colored melted chocolate. You can actually do it in stages where you put in the white for the eye, and orange for the bill and stick in fridge and let that harden. Then pour the yellow in on top of that and let that layer harden and it all pops out together, it's just that I forgot to do that. :o) So, I opted for painting it on, then smoothed it with my gloved finger. The chocolate will soften from the heat of your hand and will allow you to smooth it out.

The cake was a 12 in. chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream icing. Around the bottom is a piece of yellow grosgrain ribbon. I think he turned out adorable!

And, last but not least was a wedding shower cake for our Children's Minister and his fiance at church. This was again a 12 in. chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream icing. The wedding dress and bouquet are made from fondant. There are also tiny edible pearls adorning the dress and bouquet. She loved it so much, it made her tear up.

That's all I got for now!

WFMW - Target Dollar Spot

Since we are homeschooling now I am always on the look out for good teacher aids. I happened upon this goldmine at the Target Dollar spot a couple of weeks ago.

These are all kinds of flashcards, from your basic mathematics flashcards to USA Landmark flashcards. There were phonic, science, and animal flashcards. Also at the top of the picture next to the clock is a alphabet bingo game and a math bingo game. There was so much more stuff that I didn't purchase.

I have decided the two shelves I cleared out on my bookcase are not going to be enough room for homeschool goodies. I know all of you veteran home schooler's are chuckling at me. But, that's ok...I'm learning!

Target Dollar Spot works for me! Now go check out what works for everyone else at We are THAT family!

New Teacher in Town

That's right....there's a new teacher in town.

It's me.

Today was our first day of homeschool. My baby girl started kindergarten.

We had a great first day.

When I got up this morning, I heard some commotion and went to find her.

There she was in her room. I said "Good Morning, whatcha doin'?" She said, I have brushed my teeth, brushed my hair and now I am getting dressed. I said "Oh wow, are you ready for school?" She said, "Yes!!" Now ya'll, normally I have to MAKE her do all these things. Not today though, she was so excited to get started.

I told her we would get breakfast first and start around nine. She then told me to only give her a little bit of cereal, because she wasn't real hungry and she was ready to get started with school.

She hounded me until nine o'clock and we finally got started. I took her picture by the fireplace and made her walk out the back door and back in. She thought that was funny.

We started the day with a prayer. Then for Bible, we worked on our Awana verse. Then in phonics, we talked about the letter I. In Math we counted to 10, focusing on numbers 1-3. She kept looking at me like..."Are you serious? This is it?" I kept trying to tell her that we would be starting slow and reviewing a lot of what she learned in pre-K last year. Overall it was a great first day and she was very excited.

I hope that excitement and enthusiasm stays for a long time. I know all days won't be like this.  I know there will be days I will have to drag her kicking and screaming gently nudge her to the kitchen table. I just hope that is not for several more years. ( Just let me live in my dream world, m'kay)

We are using the A Beka curriculum. So far, I have liked what I have seen. It really lays it out nicely for the "teacher". Which is what I wanted being my first year. I just wanted someone to spell it out for me.

I have been watching everyone today update their facebooks with pictures of their little ones going off to school for the first day; can I just say I am so thankful I didn't have to kiss her goodbye this morning!!

Cakes, Cakes and More Cakes

I have been very lax in posting the cakes I have done over the past several months...so here goes.

This cake I did for a friend of a friend. This is a 8 inch chocolate cake with butter cream icing. Spiderman, the letters and numbers are fondant. I made the webs on the side out of chocolate.


I made this cake for my office. They had a Biggest Loser Competition and they asked me to make this on the last day of the competition when the winner was announced. This is a kit kat cake. It was a white cake with vanilla butter cream, surrounded by kitkats and filled in with m&m's on top.

This cake I made for Teacher Appreciation Week at Emma's preschool. It was an 8 in chocolate cake and a 6 inch vanilla cake; both with vanilla butter cream. The flowers, faces and sun were made out of fondant. Grass, clouds, stems and leaves are all butter cream. The teachers loved it!

Another cake I made for a friend of a friend. This is the Mickey head pan made by Wilton. This was chocolate cake with part vanilla and part chocolate butter cream. Black butter cream is so much easier to make if you start out with chocolate butter cream.

This was a chocolate sheet cake with chocolate butter cream. The hills were formed from cake. The bales of hay were made from fondant. The flag is paper taped to sucker sticks. The motorcycle/rider is a toy provided by the mom. My husband rigged it with some wire so that it would look like he was jumping.



This was my first topsy turvy cake to make. It was for my niece Cheyenne's 17th birthday. This was a Red Velvet and vanilla cake. 10, 8 and 6 inch tiers iced in vanilla butter cream with fondant accents. The candy on the cake is actual candy....smarties, jolly ranchers, suckers, dum dum suckers.

I made this cake for a friends son at work. This was a 9 inch vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream and fondant accents.

Well I think that finally catches me all up. I sorry for the quality of the pictures. I think I need to take some photography classes.

Princess and Little Man are so funny...every cake that I do, they decide that's the cake they want for their next birthday. So it changes often. I am so blessed because Steven helps me with all my fondant work. I love working together with him on these things. He's really good at it too.

Today happens to be my birthday and he bought me an airbrush system for my cake decorating. I am SO excited. I can't wait to try it out.

Daddy's girl

Today, Princess was making a picture with hearts and stickers.

She said, "You wanna know who I am making this picture for?"

I said, "Sure."

She said, "It's someone who is handsome."

I said, "Really"

Then she said, "And big and strong"

I said, " Oh wow, really?"

She said, " Yeah and someone who sleeps by his wife at night"

I am so trying to contain the giggle.

Then she says, "It's DADDY!!"

I said, "Oh I never would have guessed that" Then I died laughing.

Then she says, "That was funny wasn't it"

I said, "Yes, yes it was."

Then she says, "Want me to do it again??"

OH I was really rolling then. OH how I love this kid...I really do!!

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise - UPDATE

These arrived by mail today.

They are a surprise for my hubby!

I love giving surprises...but I am not good at waiting to give the surprise.

He is originally from Maryland and grew up eating these.

Just recently he got a hankerin' for them.

He can't remember a lot of details about them.

He just keeps saying "I used to eat these butterscotch cakes...I think they are called Crumpets." He also thought they were made by Hostess.

Every time we are in any kind of store that has food, he looks for them.

I have never seen or heard of them. I grew up in the south, we live in the south. I had no clue what he has been going on and on about.

So, unbeknown to him I did a little internet research...and found Butterscotch Krimpets made by Tastykakes.

I ordered two boxes. Cause I like my man to be happy!

I have been praying he won't look at the bank account online and ask me about the payment to Blair candy. Cause' I might of had to lie to him. I really wanted to keep it a secret.

I wanted to keep it a secret so much so that, he has a whole lot of family still in the MD/PA area that could have bought these and sent them to me much cheaper; but I was so afraid someone would let the cat out of the bag though.

So, they arrived today, and I am so excited and can hardly wait to give them to him. So much so that I emailed him at work and told him I have a surprise. I even suggested he might want to come on home. I am so bad! I can't stand waiting to give the surprise.

It's 2:oo in the afternoon and he's on his way home. I finally convinced him to come home. My hubby NEVER leaves work early. He RARELY calls in sick. Oh I am so bad!! I just can't wait!!!

He will be here soon. Hopefully I can get a picture of him when he sees them!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE:

Well, he arrived home.

I made him go sit at the table and close his eyes.

Then I sat the boxes in front of him and once I had my camera ready I allowed him to open his and I took two pictures as fast as I could.

Here they are...


To say the least, he was very excited. They are exactly what he used to eat as a kid.

He wanted to know just WHERE did I finally find them. I told him the internet is a great thing.

People even sells these on ebay. I did not obtain them from Ebay. I found them at the Blair Candy Co.

So if you are from up north and remember eating these as a kid and can't find them in the south or wherever it is you are now. Don't fret, you can order them online.

I love surprising my hubby!

Goin' Huntin' and Drive bys

Little man got up the other morning and came out of his room like this...

He then announced..."Mom, I'm goin' huntin', I'll be back.

I said "Oh really, what are you huntin' for?

He said, "see my hat (John Deere hat), it has a deer, that means I am going deer huntin' "

I said "OHHHHH, I see"

Wow, now that he explained it, it all makes sense. Now, if only all the other hunters all over the world knew that when they are hunting for deer they are supposed to be wearing their John Deere hat. Should I tell him now, or wait and let him figure it out on his own?

I'll wait. Cause he's just too stinkin' cute.

In the picture with him would be Winchester. That is his gun, it's not real. But he talks about Winchester as if he is a person. Winchester has to sleep by his bed at night. Winchester makes noise like a real gun and smokes like a real gun. This was a Christmas present from Poppy.

He just can't understand why I won't let him take it inside places when we go like say to, church, the store etc. I try to explain to him that Winchester might scare some people.

Then the other day we are driving down the road and he had brought Winchester along for the ride. When I suddenly realize that he has his window rolled down and is pointing Winchester out the window and "shooting" it.

I freaked.

I started hollering at him, "get that gun in the window", "roll your window up."

I was waiting for police to start coming from all over and pull me over. I could just hear them telling me that people were calling 911 reporting my vehicle with a gun hanging out the window. Can you just see the headline in the newspaper, "Local Mom has 4 year old handling gun in drive bys."

Gotta love that boy!

Fro Me to You - Crack the Latch

In January, we had a Rodeo for my sons 4th birthday.

You can read about that here, if you care.

One of the "events" was stick horse racing around bales of hay.

Since all grown men are little boys at heart, two of the dads decided they were going to race.

Well one of those dads happens to be the father of MY children.

Yeah, the big guy on the left riding the tiny stick horse, with the way too small cowboy hat; yeah that's him.
And you know what, I love him all the more for it.

Know what else??

He won!

P.S. For those not acquainted with cowboy lingo...."crack the latch" is the term cowboys say when they are ready for the gate to be open when they are bull riding in a rodeo.

Now go join the fun at The Glamorous Life Association. Show Marcie some love!! Thanks for taking over the hosting of this fun carnival Marcie!

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

These arrived by mail today.

They are a surprise for my hubby!

I love giving surprises...but I am not good at waiting to give the surprise.

He is originally from Maryland and grew up eating these.

Just recently he got a hankerin' for them.

He can't remember a lot of details about them.

He just keeps saying "I used to eat these butterscotch cakes...I think they are called Crumpets." He also thought they were made by Hostess.

Every time we are in any kind of store that has food, he looks for them.

I have never seen or heard of them. I grew up in the south, we live in the south. I had no clue what he has been going on and on about.

So, unbeknown to him I did a little internet research...and found Butterscotch Krimpets made by Tastykakes.

I ordered two boxes. Cause I like my man to be happy!

I have been praying he won't look at the bank account online and ask me about the payment to Blair candy. Cause' I might of had to lie to him. I really wanted to keep it a secret.

I wanted to keep it a secret so much so that, he has a whole lot of family still in the MD/PA area that could have bought these and sent them to me much cheaper; but I was so afraid someone would let the cat out of the bag though.

So, they arrived today, and I am so excited and can hardly wait to give them to him. So much so that I emailed him at work and told him I have a surprise. I even suggested he might want to come on home. I am so bad! I can't stand waiting to give the surprise.

It's 2:oo in the afternoon and he's on his way home. I finally convinced him to come home. My hubby NEVER leaves work early. He RARELY calls in sick. Oh I am so bad!! I just can't wait!!!

He will be here soon. Hopefully I can get a picture of him when he sees them!!

Pierced

On Saturday my sweet girl announced she was ready to get her ears pierced.

We have tried this once before and well...we left with one hole in one ear.

I know, I know, I should have had them do them both at the same time. I would have, had there been two employees in the store that day to do so.

Allow me to digress for a moment and tell a really cool story about the first piercing.

It was a Saturday back in October. Not just any Saturday, it was actually the Saturday my mother-in-law passed away. I had put my husband on a plane that morning to go be with his family. ( I flew in later to be with him for viewings and funeral, you can read about that cool story here) The kids were needing some things for an upcoming trip, so we headed to the mall.

We had talked about getting her ears pierced before,when one of her cousins went and got theirs done. We always told her whenever she thought she was ready and would like to do it, she could. In the south, it's a big deal to get an infants ears pierced. The hubby and I said from the beginning, that we would let her decide when and if she ever wanted to. I personally would not want someone putting holes in my body without my permission. Plus, I work for doctors, who told me about cases of infections from ear piercings in infants that got so bad, they became internal and caused an infection in the brain. So, basically that cleared up any questions for me about it.

So we are at the mall, and I mention to her that the store where you get your ears pierced is in the mall. She got all excited and said she wanted to do it. I said, well let's call daddy and run it by him and let him know. So I called my husband who is with his family, his mom had passed away early that morning. I tell him what's going on and that Sissy would like to get her ears pierced and we just wanted to make sure that it was alright we did it without him. He was very quiet...I was like oh no...he's changed his mind about it. Then I realize he is crying. I said...what's wrong (other than the obvious). He said, Lisa (his sister) had just (right before I called) showed him a pair of earrings that his mom had left for Sissy. NOW, I am boohooing. It was a small pair of gold hearts that she wore all the time. It's actually the only pair I ever remember seeing her wear. So this made it so much more special. So we headed over to the store and prepare to get her ears pierced. The girl does one...and Sissy screams...and starts holding her other ear, saying NO, NO, NO. I talked and talked and talked...but she wouldn't have it. So we left with one hole in one ear.

Back to this past Saturday. We were all getting ready to head out for the day to run some errands. The earrings granny left for Sissy have been in a jewelry box in my jewelry armoire. She occasionally goes in there and looks at them. On Saturday I was in my closet getting dressed and she came in there. She picked up the box and looked at them. Then she turned to me and said, Mom I want to get my ears pierced today. Can I? I said, well we are going to the mall, so we'll see about it. (I didn't want to give her a definite yes, in case, only one employee was there again)

This time it was a success! She was so brave. She said it didn't hurt at all. She's a little bummed she can't change earrings for 4 weeks. But she is very excited. She has said over and over, I love my new ears. :o)

The Price of Children

I received this by email today. I don't normally post this kind of stuff, but today this really resonated with me.
Sometimes our jobs as moms can be so repetitious. I think we could all use a reminder of what an awesome job we have.

The Price of Children

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don't have children if you want to be 'rich.' Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.


You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match..

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Showers and Birthdays

Three more cakes this week.

I started off with a coworkers wedding shower. Our office threw a shower for her and they asked me to do the cake. I got my inspiration from Cake Central, where there are many cakes like this. I just loved the simple elegance. This is a 9 inch white cake with pistachio pudding filling. Iced in buttercream with fondant accents. They loved it.
Next, I had a little girl's 3rd b-day. This is a version of a carnival cake I did for my daughter's birthday. They liked the bright colors so instead of the 2nd tier on top, I put a crown. Sorry about the lighting in the picture. Yuck! This is a 10 inch strawberry cake with buttercream icing and fondant accents.


Last but not least, was the baby shower cake. The inspiration came from the napkin. I unfortunately did not save it to show you. This is 10 inch white cake and 6 inch chocolate cake, iced in buttercream with fondant accents.

Close up of baby on top.

Whew...what a month February has been. Lots of cakes this month. So much fun! Thanks to my hubby for helping me out!

Sock Hop's and Princess'

I have had three cakes to do recently.

SOCK HOP:
The first one was for my good friend's little girl. She had a Sock Hop birthday party and here is what I did...

A doll cake, sitting on an 8 inch round. Then 3 10 inch round record cakes. All buttercream with fondant accents. Except the doll's skirt, it was fondant. It was a hit!

PRINCESS:
Then I had this sweet little princess cake for a little girl turning 2. A 10 inch and 6 inch iced in buttercream with fondant accents.



KIT KAT CAKE:
This cake was for a lady I work with. It was her birthday and my office manager asked me to make a cake. I have been wanting to do this cake for a while now and just had not had the opportunity yet. I think it turned out adorable.

It's a 12 inch 2 layer cake; surrounded by kit kats and filled in on top with m&m's.

Friends

I took little man to the Dr. for his four year old check up last week.

Yeah, I am a little behind, don't bust my chops.

Dr. T is going through all the questions with little man.

Can you dress yourself? Check.

Can you hop? Check.

Can you hop on one foot? Check.

Do you have any friends you like to play with?

Little Man looks at him and says, "Yeah, Woody, Buzz, and Jesse"

Ok, so he is a little obsessed with the Toy Story characters.

Ok, so he has a bag of these characters he takes to bed with him every night.

I immediately try to explain the situation. I say to Ethan, "No he means your friends like...like....."

I can't think of anyone that is Ethan's friend. I can't help that all our friends have little girls, or boys who are older.

I mean he has friends, friends we go to church with, but don't play with on a regular basis. Friends that are his sisters friends, so they are his friends by default.

So I guess I am on the look out for some new friends with a boy child in the four year old range.

SFMTY - PUT IT BACK

Sissy lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve.

It had a little help from a hanger.

She did not want her tooth out.

In fact, she was crying, begging her daddy to put it back in.

I being the great mommy I am...ran and got the camera.

I had to capture the moment of her crying, asking for it to be put back.

The hubby chastised me, for not being more sensitive.

I looked at him and said one word.....blog!

Nope, nothing is sacred anymore....deal with it.

Then we all laughed about it.

I wrote about it back in December, with the more "scrapbookable" (is that a word?) picture.

Now go join the fun at We are THAT Family!